The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-10-22
AGRICULTURAL PESTS.
The Necessity of Providing Against Their
Steadily Growing Ravages.

Tho Necessity of Providing Against TheaR
Steadily Growing Ravages.
The pests of the farmer are chiefly of
the lowest forms of animal or of veget-
able life. They prey upon both ami
mails a..d plants. AS in the case of
many forms of human disease, they are
the invisible germs of growth fatal to
the system upon which they fasten, and
at the expense of which they thrive
Mildew, mould, rust on the stalk, and
smut in the kernel of grain are famil-
lar examples of this pernicious vegeta-
ton. Epidemic diseases among cattle,
such as the rinderpest and the foot-and-
mouth disease, are probably due to
bacilli similar to those that occasion
consumption among mankind.
The necessity of providing against
the ravages of these pests is now rec
ognized by all leading Governments.
Any thing like effective measures
against them must be concerted and
universal in application. The inter-
change of products has spread these
pests from their original homes into
every quarter of the globe where any
thing grows or lives that they can prey
upon. 1t is to be observed that the vi
tality of most of these germs survives
every degree of heat and of cold. Their
diminutive proportions protect them
against all external violence.
An article upon these pests says that
sit is mooted point as to whether
their ravages are due or not, to modern
and more artificial systems of cultiva-
ton, which may be more favorable to
the spread of insects and parasitic
fungi. Or it may be that these new
systems interfere with the balance of
nature by decreasing parasitic and
other insects, and birds and other
animals, which are the natural foes OF
injurious insects.
Upon the first point it may be said
that many appearances favor the con-
clusion that both high cultivation and
low cultivation tend to promote the
ravages of pests. In the former case
the rapid development of cell formation
exposes most delicate tissues to the at
tacks of parasitic growth. In the latter
case, with low cultivation, the tissues
are not developed with sufficient vigor
to resist the attacks of disease, and
they are sure and easy prey to the
parasites that feed upon them. AS to
| the supposition that the balance of
nature has been interfered with, this
may be admitted without proof. That
balance is SO delicately poised, and
our methods of working are SO blind
and inconsiderate at the best, that the
wonder is that SO little mischief has as
yet been done. But the increased fire.
! quency and fatality of blight testifies
| directly to this fact.
| The coffee-mildew did no serious
harm in the coffee plantations of Cey-
lon until after 1870. but within the
last ten years it has greatly diminished
their yield. Hop-blights are said to be
| far more common and destructive in
England now than they were fifty
years ago. This pest has been intro
duced into this country only within 9
few years, and yeti last year destroyed
the crop upon nearly forty Thousand
acres. The potato-rot appeared il
England in 1874, and the Colorado
beetle has found his way across thu
ocean with scarcely one scason's de
| lay. 1t is said that the orange grow
ers of Florida, California and othel
place, are at their wits end to comba
the ravagcs of scale insects, which nav.
greatly increased since 1870.
| Our cultivated plants and domesti
Gated animals have been removed b.
us from the care OF nature, and will
perfect right appeal to humane com
passion ior defense against the attack
i u enemies to which our treatment has
exposed them Xontb's Companion.